I am sure the sound card is detected by NetBSD, but gstreamer fails to recognize it.

The first thing you should check is the output of dmesg(8) for how the kernel is interpreting the hardware present. Posting the entire output here may help others identify what you are experiencing.

Quote:

I am not sure how to access the sound device. There is /dev/audio, /dev/mixer.

Familiarizing yourself with the project's documentation is essential. Section 11.5 of the NetBSD Guide will help you diagnose the situation yourself.

There is only a small number of people on this site who have direct experience with NetBSD. They may or may not join into discussion. As you explore NetBSD further, you should also read through archives of the project's mailing lists. Information on how the project segments discussion & the location of the archives can be found at the following:

ocicat, thanks. I have read that part of the documentation, but I couldn't figure out how to make the DE "recognize" the hardware. There is not much documentation in NetBSD about desktop usage unfortunately.

So, its an azalia(4) chipset. From experience with other projects, azalia chips are wired in a multitude of ways.

My recommendation would be ensure that sound is enabled as described at the Section 11.3 of the Guide. Once you have convinced yourself that the system can generate basic sound from the tools provided by NetBSD, then move on to Xfce4-specific issues.

Secondly, I would recommend posting to the netbsd-users@ or port-i386@ mailing lists. If you do post, include the dmesg(8) output posted here, & the results of the Section 11.3 tests. This may reduce the number of iterations needed to find a solution.